N. LOGAN SHUNS WATER PLAN

North Logan has hired an attorney to press for the city's exclusion from a proposed Cache County Water Conservancy District.

Mayor Alma Moser said Friday the City Council, which earlier passed a resolution opposing the district, voted last week to hire Logan attorney Gary Anderson. Members say the city would derive no benefit from such a district, he said."We also strongly oppose the state law that requires about four times as many signatures on petitions to stop a district as it does to establish one," Moser said.

Anderson said in order to participate in a July trial on the case, he must first convince 1st District Judge Gordon Low, his former law partner, that North Logan has standing in the case.

Anderson recently met with Low and attorneys Brent Hoggan, representing district proponents, and Jeffrey Appel, counsel for the anti-district side.

The judge gave Hoggan and Anderson until April 20 to file motions on the question.

"One of the issues that needs to be decided is if the conservancy district benefits cities like North Logan that have adequate water supplies," Anderson said.

He said he also plans to test the constitutionality of state laws governing creation of a special district, specifically a provision allowing less than 5 percent of the population of a given area to determine whether a conservancy district is established.

"The proponents were able to get their 5 percent, but opponents readily collected signatures of 27 percent of the city's property owners. Members of the council believe that at least 80 percent of the North Logan population is against such a district," Anderson said.